184 Anecdotal Naturae History 



wounded, they once fall, they never rise again. The 

 lions, tigers, bears, and even the buffaloes, will spring 

 to their feet even when mortally wounded, and often 

 kill their slayer with their last struggles. But the 

 dying elephant " subsides like a great hayrick," to 

 use Mr. Sullivan's words, and expires so gently, that 

 the hunter is often uncertain whether the animal be 

 dead or merely resting. 



Ivory workers often find bullets imbedded in the 

 tusks. They have struck the root of the tusk, which 

 is hollow, and filled with pulp, and have been 

 gradually carried towards the tip by the growth of the 

 tusk. In the ivory turners' department of the Crystal 

 Palace, there are some very curious examples of 

 imbedded balls. In one case, the track of the ball is 

 marked by a tunnel of bone extending across the 

 base of the tusk, the ball itself having passed towards 

 the point. 



As is the case with the whale tribe, the brain of 

 the elephant is very small in proportion to the size 

 of the head, and is so deeply sunk in its bony out- 

 works, that the hunter must aim as accurately as if 

 shooting at a sparrow. 



It is quite common to find in the skulls of slain 

 elephants the marks where bullets have passed 

 through the honeycomb-like mass of bone which 

 surrounds the brain, and where the damage has been 

 repaired by Nature. There are several such speci- 

 mens in the College of Surgeons. 



If the African elephant cannot be induced to turn 

 his side towards the hunter, the only hope of the 

 latter is to aim at one of the legs so as to disable it. 



The late Gordon Gumming once owed his life to an 

 accidental shot which broke the elephant's leg and 

 rendered it powerless. As it could not stir, he, 

 knowing very little of anatomy, tried to find its 



